Day Moon
We tend to think of migration as a nightly event as we enter the spring – watching birds pass in front of the moon on a clear evening, catching them on radar, hearing flight calls in the darkness or finding new faces have joined us in our yards and patches when we wake up in the morning. While we often ignore the moon shining in the bright blue sky all day we also ignore the fact many birds are flying over us then, too. Yes, we see geese and certainly are aware of hawk watches and the many raptors that use thermals, but shorebirds might be migrating nonstop over the continent, while...
Read MoreBird Migration on Radar – March 31
Here is a radar grab of the eastern United States from just after midnight today with light bird migration occurring from the deep south all the way through Maine. A warm front had lifted through the Northeast while areas of heavy rain and thunderstorms associated with a soon to come cold front stretched across the Midwest. Areas near Georgia into the Carolinas and Delmarva appear to have had moderate migration occurring. At this time of the year we have everything from ducks to wintering friends like the Dark-eyed Junco to early arrivals like Pine Warbler, both kinglets, Chipping Sparrow,...
Read MoreRadar Migration October 1, 2015
Here is an impressive view of the eastern United States just after midnight today, October 1, 2015. The precipitation we can see south of New England over the ocean and into the Mid-Atlantic and south is from a cold front that passed through yesterday and is now nearly stationary. It allowed migrant birds to take to the air on subsequent strong northerly winds. However, this front will creep back to the west, and we do not yet know what Hurricane Joaquin will do to the east coast. It will most likely thread the needle between an Atlantic high and a coastal low, moving into the Mid-Atlantic...
Read MoreRadar Migration September 21, 2015
Here we go again! This was the radar last night around 11:00PM EST, full of nocturnal migrant birds pouring to the south after yesterday’s cold front. Go out and find them this morning and then their friends (or maybe more accurately foes) in the sky with diurnal raptor migration going on all day. Good birding to you!
Read MoreRadar Migration September 11, 2015
This was the eastern radar a few hours after sunset last night – wow! What did you see out there this morning? It seems like there were many thrushes in flight overnight, and I found Catbird City outside a few hours ago. Here comes the next front through the Midwest and then the Northeast today, and we need the water. It should be good early week period for all sorts of passerines and raptors. Scott Kruitbosch Conservation & Outreach Coordinator
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